Testosterone In The Open Door

Robert Sapolsky’s collection of essays “The Trouble with Testosterone” is a thorough examination of the evolutionary roots of human behavior, by discussing the biology behind it. The book contains eighteen essays that explore this issue. The Stanford neuroscientist is a great writer: he concisely explains his views in each essay and makes it funny and easy for a layman to understand and absorb. He unpacks complex scientific ideas and explains them. The essay that I found most interesting was the titular essay, which was an examination of flawed logical reasoning that biologists make when they think there is a causal relationship between testosterone and aggression. Sapolsky, in that essay, explains why that is not true. These essays did not

She explains that adolescents use quantitative reasoning when making a risky decision, and take almost twice as long as adults do before deciding. Correspondingly, adolescents focus on potential, temporary rewards, while adults focus on long-term consequences, such as infections or death (Szalavitz). Researcher, Agnieszka Tymula suggests that the adolescent’s “tolerance for unknown risks might stem from an underlying biological feature that makes learning about the unknown less unpleasant for adolescents than it is for adults” (Szalavitz). Therefore, youthful risk-taking is an evolutionary factor to benefit the overall progression of the species. Thus, even though high-risk activities may have serious consequences, there is a possibility for the outcome to outweigh the initial risk, so that the reward is

So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. (56-57)”

There was nothing more daring than being alone in a barren wasteland, without a cellphone, money, and even extra food supplies for the road. Chris McCandless, an extreme risk taker, believes that risk taking is necessary to outgrow the “shell” everyone is entrapped within because living on the edge allows characteristics to be built. Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild is a novel that reveals the adventure, journey, and risk taking of Chris McCandless, who is similar to Guy Montag, a protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and Odysseus, also a protagonist in The Odyssey, who all feature a comparable attribute; that of which is risk taking. At the hand of these characters possessing courageous features believing that “it is the experiences, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found,” arguably portraying that risk taking is what allows courageous features to become expressed freely (Krakauer, Into the Wild).

What is it that we find crazy about those who have the courage to do what we won’t? In the compelling novel “Into The Wild” by Jon Krakauer the character and intelligence of the youth in men is questioned. Through the pieced together 200 page novel we are introduced to Christopher Johnson McCandless also known as “Alex Supertramp”. A ripe 24 years of age he chose to question our reality and his meaning of life that is given to us by hitchhiking across America to the Alaskan wilderness, where after four months in the last frontier he is found dead. Krakauer throughout the novel shows that although some admire what McCandless did, others found his final journey “reckless” and “crazy”. Krakauer goes to explain this claim through interviews of those who have encountered McCandless on his adventure and through those who got to know his story.

There are many reasons why people take risks even though it is crazy and impossible. For example, in the memoir, “The Other Side of the Sky”, it shows that Farah Ahmedi is climbing a mountain with a prosthetic leg. In the fictional story, “Rikki-tikki-tavi”, in this story the mongoose, Rikki-tikki-tavi takes the risk of going into a snake 's burrow which has a high possibility that he will be killed. In the poem, “The Song of Wandering Aengus”, Aengus goes on a crazy mission that might take his whole life to accomplish which is to find the “glimmering girl” because he is in love with that girl. Aengus wanted to find the “glimmering girl” that he in love with, while Rikki-tikki-tavi and Farah Ahmedi wanted

“If you want it, go for it. Take a risk. Don't always play it safe or you just might die wondering.” - Every day we take risks, whether you know it or not. Some risks might be good some might be bad but we will never know if we don't take them. Risk taking happens from the time we wake up in the morning till the time we go to bed.

Beowulf set his ego aside and hurdled into the face of danger in order to defeat a greater evil and liberate the people of Heorot from the demonic grasp of Grendel. The crew aboard the Challenger brought America together and helped us insure the safety of future astronauts. Tom pushed his body to the edge to live the life he dreamed of. Risks are imperative in life. Even beginning life, they are our instinct. We learn to crawl despite the bruises on our knees. We learn to walk no matter how many falls we endure. As we become further aware of the world around us, somewhere along the way, we experience failure; at that point, many people attempt to eradicate most risks from their life. But where would we be without our sense of exploration, our willingness to try new things? In order to push one’s boundaries, move forward as a society, and give purpose to life people must be willing to take risks.

“If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.” (Richard M. Nixon). In his investigative biography, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer, expresses that even though young people can be ignorant and take treacherous risks, these can be used as knowledge enhancers and can be life changers. Krakauer gives us insight by giving examples of what risk really are, how people take them, and how it actually affects those people. Throughout the whole book, there are instances where Krakauer uses real life examples of things that have happened where people have taken risks and the outcomes of that. In general, one has to take risks in life to truly find oneself and Krakauer says “It can be argued that youthful derring-do is in fact evolutionarily adaptive, a behavior encoded in our genes” (182). Krakauer explains that for teenagers the idea of doing outrageous things comes easily to them because it’s only natural for them. Krakauer explains that for teenagers, doing crazy things is due to the fact that adventure lives in their blood and this has been going on for many centuries. For a teenager death and injury seems like a joke, they don 't even consider these, the absence of fear of death makes them feel invincible and causing them to take so many risks. There are so many examples in history of young people who have left so much behind only to start what they would believe is a new life. Krakauer includes a whole two

Testosterone is a hormone in both men and women, but in greater extent in the men, testosterone is a chemical compound (C19H28O2) and is responsible for the characteristic of men such as, sexual characteristics/sexual organs, deepening of the voice, and facial and body hair. (Neil Schlager, Jayne Weisblatt, and David E. Newton 2006) Testosterone/Steroids has bodybuilding and masculinizing effect as well as treating a variety of medical conditions, like asthma, the steroid is used in a puffer, they can be used for anabolic or androgenic purposes and made for synthetic purposes making them illegal. (BROWER, K. J. 2001) Many athletes will use these to gain an advantage on competitors, with lean muscle and higher endurance, with many uses, there

Klinesmith, Kasser and McAndrew simultaneously studied the links between guns, (objects associated with aggression), testosterone levels in males, and aggressive behavior. They hypothesized that males who interacted with an object associated with aggression would have an increase in both testosterone and aggressive behavior.

“In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” - Lewis Carroll. The quote discussed is Jack London “The proper function of man is to live, not exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” In order to support this I will use evidence from articles and studies. I agree with Jack London’s claim that people should live not exist, and use their time wisely. I agree because risk taking actually has health benefits, people often take risks and then love the outcome and research has found risk taking can actually be eye-opening.

We see risk taking being defined as exposure to the chance or injury of loss; a hazard of dangerous chance. But what if there was another way of redefining risk taking? What must one overcome to be able to define their own accomplishments and or failure as taking risks in their lives? In the collection of unit 5 of the Close Reader by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, we as a class clearly got to understand the importance of risk taking and how risks can affect one's life in the decisions they choose to make. The stories of Beowulf, Blackheart, and lastly Are Genetically Modified Foods Scary? a perfect example of what the cause and effects are for risk taking. The importance of

The word “risk” means the possibility of suffering a harmful event. Risk taking can bring either positive or negative result because anytime we take risks in life, there is a possibility of loss which can cause tension. There are a lot of people who take big risks and appear not to be affected by them. But, many of us feel very uneasy when faced with risk-taking; we may become worried about the risk. Although some people are content in life by just playing it safe and not courting any

In life, we are susceptible to danger just about everywhere we go. Most people avoid danger at all costs, however there are certain dare devils who will face danger head on. Have you ever wondered if some people willingly put themselves in dangerous situations just to explore their curiosity? If you had to take a guess, would you guess that men or women are more likely to willingly enter dangerous situations? People will face danger for many different reasons, some because they are not at all aware of the potential danger, and others do because their temptation is too strong. In an initial reading, Oyeyemi’s tale “What Happens Next” in her novel Mr. Fox begins by telling the story of Mary Foxe’s plane ride back to London where she meets